A plot is a graphical technique for representing a data set, usually as a graph showing the relationship between two or more variables. In common two-dimensional plots or graphs, data items are plotted simultaneously, for example, with respect to two variables along two perpendicular axes (e.g., X and Y axis). The graphs provide a visual representation of the relationship between variables. A value for each data item displayed can be identified with respect to each of the two featured variables by using the axes labels.
Plots or graphs are used to present data visually in mathematics, sciences, engineering, technology, finance, business and other fields. A goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and effectively through graphical means. Statistics and data analysis procedures generally yield their output in numeric or tabular form. Graphical techniques allow such results to be displayed in pictorial form as plots including, for example, scatter plots, histograms, probability plots, spaghetti plots, residual plots, box plots, block plots and biplots, etc. Plots or graphs can be useful for humans who can quickly comprehend and derive an understanding of data from a visual inspection of a picture that does not come as easily from perusing lists or tables of numeric values.
Computer systems and software for presenting data visually in the form of the various types of plots are widely available. Although the graphical data plots can convey information by presenting a data set visually, interpretation of the information (i.e., the plotted data) depends on the mental activities of the viewer. In general, the viewer's activities are limited to visual inspection, which cannot be tracked by observing viewer or screen behavior. Exploration of a data set displayed in a graph, beyond mere visual inspection, requires further analysis of the data set (and related data) using, for example, statistical packages or analytics software (e.g., business analytics software).
Consideration is being given to systems and methods which combine visual inspection and analytic search functions for exploration of data sets.